State government running behind schedule of IAY house target

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government has set a target to construct 2,93,522 houses under Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), the rural housing scheme for the poor, in the current financial year, only three per cent of the target has been achieved.

According to the activities report of Panchayati Raj department, nearly 1.20 lakh houses are under construction and 9,138 units have been completed. Of the completed housing units, 3305 belong to scheduled caste, 2099 to scheduled tribe and 424 to minorities.

Jagatsinghpur and Mayurbhanj have done miserably with not a single house completed in the two districts. The annual target for Jagatsinghpur and Mayurbhanj is 22,223 and 17,394 units respectively. While 5318 and 5394 beneficiaries of the two districts have taken up constructions of houses under the scheme, none of them has completed it.

Physical achievement is only one per cent of the target in Balasore, Bargarh, Boudh, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur and Sambalpur districts while the progress is two per cent in Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Koraput and Sundargarh. Bhadrak and Sonepur have performed well with a physical achievement of 10 per cent.

Under the scheme, 60 per cent of BPL households from the scheduled categories and 40 per cent from other categories are covered. Priority is given to freed bonded labourers, fire victims, families of defence and paramilitary personnel killed in action and physically challenged persons.

With an outstanding balance of Rs 150.75 crore, the total availability of fund under IAY scheme was ` 171.44 crore. However, the State had utilised ` 29.20 crore till the end of May which was 17 per cent of the total fund.

Last year, the Centre sanctioned nearly one lakh houses for people enjoying the land rights under Forest Rights Act (FRA). The Ministry of Rural Development sanctioned Rs 362.52 crore additional assistance towards Central share and released Rs 181.12 crore as first instalment.

But the State Government has been able to utilise six per cent of Rs 79 crore available with the department by constructing only 325 houses.

Under the State sponsored Mo Kudia programme, the Government has set a target to construct 24,000 housing units including nearly 12,000 carry over from the last year. The Government sanctioned another 443 units for the current financial year. Till the end of May, only 2,355 houses have been completed which is 10 per cent of the target.

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